This Man Review

Young interior designer Ava O’Shea has an appointment for a first consultation at The Manor with the owner, Mr Jesse Ward. She is expecting nothing more than an overweight, cravat wearing, well-to-do countryman, and on arrival, nothing would suggest otherwise. How wrong could she be? This Man is devastatingly handsome, charming and confident. He is also a conceited, hedonistic playboy, who knows no boundaries. Ava desperately does not want to be attracted to him, but she can’t control the overwhelming affect he has on her. Every instinct is telling her to run, so she does, but Jesse Ward is not so willing to let her go. He wants her and is determined to have her. She knows she is heading for heartbreak, but how can she run when he won’t let her?
I’m just going to come right out and say it.  I LOVE this book.  If you’re looking for a sizzling hot read that’s all kinds of sexy, funny and entertaining, This Man by Jodi Ellen Malpas is the book for you.  Please bear in mind that this is an adult erotica title and if sexy, alpha males don’t do it for you, then by all means, look away now. 

Ava is our protagonist, a young, fairly wealthy interior designer who has been asked to come to ‘The Manor’ to meet with the owner, Jesse Ward who wants to be her next client.   But when she gets there, she finds that Jesse is so damn good looking that she’s struggling to even look him in the eye let alone hold a conversation.  She also knows that he’s a playboy and her instincts are to run away as fast as she can but Jesse won’t let her go so easily, and he always gets his way.  Mostly.  Perhaps, just not with Ava ;)

What I like most about Ava is that she really did stick to her guns in the beginning.  She turned him down again and again and again but he wasn’t giving up and I can’t blame her for finally giving into her attraction to Jesse.  I do admire her for resisting for as long as she did though.  And although Jesse can be controlling, Ava is also a strong character and she challenges him on a regular basis.  She’s not just going to lie down and roll over, thank you very much.  One of the things I enjoyed the most was the fact that Jesse wouldn’t tell Ava his real age.  And so, like a dog with a bone, Ava kept asking and every single time, he would give her a different figure that was slowly increasing in age.  At first, I really didn’t catch on to this and when he said he was nineteen in the beginning, I thought I was reading a WHOLE DIFFERENT BOOK to the one I thought I was.  Eventually though, I was let in on the joke and I enjoyed the fact that it’s a running joke throughout the entire book. 

Jesse is just all kinds of gorgeous.  He’s good looking (without being arrogant), confident (without being conceited), rich (without being over the top) and naturally, he’s good in bed as I assume he’s had a hell of a lot of practice.  I don’t normally fall for players but I do swoon when they find someone special that they want to commit to and end up proving to the reader, that they were just looking for her all along.  The only bad thing about Jesse is that he is really controlling with Ava and just sometimes, this ventured outside of my comfort zone despite the fact that I like the idea of being someone’s sole focus of attention. What kept making me laugh however is how everyone else in the book would tell Ava how laidback Jesse was LOL.  His behaviour changed around her and was mostly borne out of fear – fear of losing her and the connection that they share.  Speaking of which, they often fell down when it came to communication and tended to jump into bed with each other rather than talk BUT it was rather amusing discovering just how many labels they put on their activities – I’m particularly partial to the ‘sense fuck’ and the ‘reminder fuck’.   Not that Ava is allowed to let the word fuck come out of her mouth without being reprimanded for having a dirty mouth.  That made me laugh too and by the way, just so you know, he’s a god damn hypocrite ;)

I also really enjoyed the setting and the fact that this book is set in and around London, which is very rare in this genre.  The only slight criticism I have is that I found some American spellings and the occasional American word that didn’t fit with how a British person would speak which led me to believe that either the author or the editor must be American.  THEN, I found out that Jodi was British and lives in the UK *high fives* so maybe it’s the editor.

The ending of the book is VERY revealing and it appears that Jesse has been hiding some very big secrets from Ava.  That is, until Ava finds out and all hell breaks loose which sets us up perfectly for the sequel. I did guess the little twist early on in the book but believe me, it didn’t ruin the story in the slightest for me and I enjoyed how it reached its conclusion.

This Man definitely kept me entertained and I couldn’t wait to dive into the sequel and carry on where it left off.  I bought it immediately and thankfully, I didn’t have to wait as it was published at the beginning of this year.  The only problem now is that I am DESPERATE, DESPERATE I tell you for book three!!!!

This Man was published on 20th October, 2012.  The Sequel entitled Beneath This Man was published on 15th January, 2013.  To find out more about Jodi and her books, please click here to visit her website.  This Man is originally self published and has now been picked up by a traditional publisher in the US.  Paperback copies will be available in 2014 but you can buy the kindle version now.  If you’re interested in reading,  I would recommend getting it now as after 18th June, it is being re-published and I do think it will probably increase in price.   At present, there is no UK publisher but OMG do they need to jump on this one!

This is a fan made book trailer I found that sums up the book perfectly and all credit goes to Jenna Bananas.